For God and Country

Q: I would like to go back to the first incident, when the survivor asked why did you kill his brother. Was that the incident that pushed you over the edge, as you put it?

A: Oh, yeah. Later on I found out that was a typical day. I talked with my commanding officer after the incident. He came up to me and says: "Are you OK?" I said: "No, today is not a good day. We killed a bunch of civilians." He goes: "No, today was a good day." And when he said that, I said "Oh, my goodness, what the hell am I into?"

Reading the excellent Whiskey Bar blog, I stumbled across an interview with Marine Staff Sergeant, Jimmy Massey, that originally appeared in the local American newspaper, The Sacramento Bee, and from which the quote above is an extract from.

In the interview, Massey explains how he, a soldier who served twelve years in the US Marine Corps, went from being someone who unquestioningly went to war in Iraq, believing the official line of it being a pre-emptive strike against Saddam Hussein's attempts to build up a stockpile of weapons of mass destruction, to someone who felt:"I was like every other troop. My president told me they got weapons of mass destruction, that Saddam threatened the free world, that he had all this might and could reach us anywhere. I just bought into the whole thing."

Reading Massey's interview reminded me of the oft-quoted statement from Smedley D. Butler, a former Major-General of the Marine Corps:

"There isn't a trick in the racketeering bag that the military gang is blind to. It has its 'finger men' (to point out enemies) its 'muscle men' (to destroy enemies) its 'brain guys' (to plan war preparations) and a 'Big Boss' (supernationalistic capitalism).

"It may seem odd for me, a military man, to adopt such a comparison. Truthfulness compels me to do so. 1 spent 33 years and 4 months in active military service as a member of our country's most agile military force - the Marine Corps. I served in all commissioned ranks from a second lieutenant to major-general. And during that period I spent most of my time being a high-class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street and for the bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism.

"I suspected I was just a part of a racket at the time. Now I am sure of it. Like all members of the military profession, I never had an original thought until I left the service. My mental faculties remained in suspended animation while I obeyed the orders of the higher-ups. This is typical with everyone in the military service.

"Thus I helped make Mexico and especially Tampico safe for American oil interests in 1914. I helped to make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in. I helped the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefit of Wall Street. The record of racketeering is long. I helped purify Nicaragua for the international banking house of Brown Brothers in 1909-12. I brought light to the Dominican Republic for American sugar interests in 1916. In China in 1927 I helped see to it that the Standard Oil went on its way unmolested.

"During those years, I had, as the boys in the back room would say, a swell racket. I was rewarded with honors, medals and promotions. Looking back on it, I feel that I might have given Al Capone a few hints. The best he could do was to operate his racket in three city districts. I operated on three continents." (Quoted in the Western Socialist, November, 1961).

As indicated above, this forty year old quote from Butler is quoted from the Western Socialist, the old journal of the World Socialist Party of the United States It's a quote I read many years ago and the initial surprise and shock of reading such candour from someone who knows how and why the capitalist strings are pulled have diminished over the years through nothing more than over familiarity with the quote. However, it regained its contemporary relevance because, despite the impact of reading Massey's interview, where he discloses what was really happening to the 'grunts' on the ground and how it went against everything one read in the mainstream press at the time (admittedly there were exceptions amongst the press), and how he now understood that he served in a war fought for reasons that he neither understood nor supported, it is the case that his objections to the war are laid squarely at the door of George W. Bush and his administration. The 'Great Man of History' and its counterpart, the 'Great Villain of History' idea is something that socialists should always warn against and, from his quote, it is self-evident that Butler saw the bigger picture if only because of the length of time that he served, and because of the more senior position that he held, with the American Military - therefore being able to have the greater overview of American Foreign Policy.

This is no slight against Massey's experience and the account recounted in his interview: Just the recognition that unfortunately the majority of the material and arguments against this war are still limited within the scope of attributing its cause to the work of a particular partisan section of the political elite and their own personal motives.

Reading the Massey interview, and previously watching the news footage surrounding the scandal of what happened at Abu Ghraib jail, where especial interest was focused on Lynndie England, one of the American soldiers that was implicated in the abuse of Iraqi detainees in the jail, and how by all accounts she signed up to the American army as much for economic reasons as for reasons of patriotism it reminded me of the following dialogue from Lone Star, written and directed by the brilliant John Sayles I don't have the necessary eloquence to explain why this excerpt is so powerful - John Sayles dialogue is eloquence enough - but I think it says so much for why so many men and women do sign up for 'God and Country' ('Queen and Country' for the tea drinkers reading). It is to the credit of Sayles as a writer that the dialogue of the two characters in the scene is not simply put in place to make a cheap point against people who serve in the military, and to his further credit that these two characters, as the case with all the characters in his films, are something much more than ciphers in the film. People always have their reasons.

INT. DEL'S OFFICE -- DAY

Athena stands at attention as Del sits at his desk, reviewing her record. He lets her stand for a long time before speaking--

DEL- Private Johnson, are you unhappy in the Army?

ATHENA - No, sir--

DEL - Then how would you explain the fact that out of one hundred twenty people we tested, you're the only one who came up positive for drugs?

ATHENA - I'm sorry, sir.

DEL - When you were given the opportunity to enlist, a kind of contract was agreed upon. I think the Army has honored its part of that agreement.

ATHENA - Yes, sir--

DEL - Do you believe in what we're doing here, Private Johnson?

ATHENA - I-I can do the job, sir.

DEL - You don't sound too enthusiastic.

ATHENA - I am, sir.

DEL - What exactly do you think your job is, Private?

ATHENA - Follow orders. Do whatever they say.

DEL- Who's "they"?

ATHENA - The--the officers.

DEL - And that's the job? Nothing about serving your country?

Athena is confused, hesitates to speak--

DEL - These aren't trick questions, Private. You'll be given an Article 15 and be going into the ADCAP Program one way or the other. What happens after that is up to you. I'm just trying to understand how somebody like you thinks.

Silence--

DEL - Well?

ATHENA - (Hesitant) You really want to know, sir?

DEL - Please.

ATHENA - It's their country. This is one of the best deals they offer.

Del knows he asked for it, but doesn't like the answer--

DEL - How do you think I got to be a colonel?

ATHENA - Work hard, be good at your job. Sir. Do whatever they tell you.

DEL - Do whatever they tell you--

ATHENA - I mean, follow orders, sir.

DEL - With your attitude, Private, I'm surprised you want to stay in the service.

ATHENA - I do, sir.

DEL - Because it's a job?

ATHENA - (Struggling) Outside it's--it's such a mess--it's--

DEL - Chaos.

Athena is sure she's overstepped her rank--

DEL - Why do you think they let us in on the "deal"?

ATHENA - They got people to fight. Arabs, yellow people, whatever. Might as well use us.

DEL - Do you think you've been discriminated against on this post?

ATHENA - No, sir. Not at all.

DEL - Any serious problems with your sergeant or your fellow soldiers?

ATHENA - No, sir. They all been real straight with me.

Del stands, thinking, trying not to bullshit her--

DEL - It works like this, Private--every soldier in a war doesn't have to believe in what he's fighting for. Most of them fight just to back up the soldiers in their squad--you try not to get them killed, try not to get them extra duty, try not to embarrass yourself in front of them.

He is right in her face now--

DEL - Why don't you start with that?

ATHENA - Yes, sir.

DEL - You're dismissed, Private.

ATHENA - Thank you, sir.

Athena salutes, steps out. Del looks out the window, troubled by the encounter.